Did Paul Ryan Lie? Nope, But The Obama Media Sure Did

Paul Ryan gave an electrifying speech at the Republican National Convention last night. Unlike most of the other speeches, this one took some time to actually hit President Obama on his abysmal record, although it was done humorously, with a rapier rather than a baseball bat.



Ryan made reference in the speech to yet another broken promise of President Obama's this one during the 2008 campaign when he was fishing for votes:

President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.

A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008.

Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.

The Obama media went absolutely bonkers over this with their self appointed 'fact checkers'. The more egregious offenders were the Washington Post and The Associated Press, but there were plenty of other, especially when it came to the usual suspects at MSNBC and the Soros Media lackeys.

What did Ryan supposedly lie about? Well, the plant closed down during the Bush Administration, in December 2008, before President Obama was even inaugurated. And Obama never promised he'd keep it open.

Except for one inconvenient fact - Paul Ryan was right on both counts.

In 2008, the Janesville GM plant received notice it might be facing closure...but not until the end of 2009. And in fact, that's exactly when it did cease production..in December of 2009, during the first year of President Barack Obama's term and well after the GM bailout in June of 2009.



It gets better. Apparently the Obama Administration could have chosen to keep the Janesville plant open, but chose not to, opting to keep the plant in Springhill Tennessee operating instead.

So , to sum up, the Janesville plant closed while Barack Obama was president, and it could have been kept open.

I guess being a fact checker in the Obama Media simply involves repeating the White House's talking points, not actually, you know, fact checking.

Next, let's visit the other claim the Obama media is claiming was bogus, whether Candidate Obama made promises he didn't keep. My, wouldn't that be a shocker!

Candidate Obama made the speech Ryan was talking about in Janesville on February 13th, 2008 to a bunch of frightened auto workers and their families who were already on notice as of February 2008 that the plant was likely slated for closure at the end of 2009. Here's exactly what Obama said:

But through hard times and good, great challenge and great change, the promise of Janesville has been the promise of America – that our prosperity can and must be the tide that lifts every boat; that we rise or fall as one nation; that our economy is strongest when our middle-class grows and opportunity is spread as widely as possible. And when it’s not – when opportunity is uneven or unequal – it is our responsibility to restore balance, and fairness, and keep that promise alive for the next generation. That is the responsibility we face right now, and that is the responsibility I intend to meet as President of the United States. …

Those are the steps we can take to ease the cost crisis facing working families. But we still need to make sure that families are working. We need to maintain our competitive edge in a global by ensuring that plants like this one stay open for another hundred years, and shuttered factories re-open as new industries that promise new jobs. And we need to put more Americans to work doing jobs that need to be done right here in America.

Not only that, but in October, when the polls looked close, Candidate Obama doubled down:

“As president, I will lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville so we can build the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow and create good-paying jobs in Wisconsin and all across America.”

He wanted their votes, so he told them what they wanted to hear and they bought into it. Except when President Obama put the taxpayers on the hook for $25 billion taxpayer dollars that will never be recouped in order to gift GM to the unions who spent over $40 million to get him into office, the Janeville plant was...overlooked.

That was likely because it made SUVs and trucks, vehicles the Obama Administration absolutely hates as being 'insufficiently green'.

So Paul Ryan, as usual, knew exactly what he was talking about.

As for the Obama Media, I no longer wonder how they live with the climate of partisan dishonesty they've chosen to create and dwell in.

Mortgages and car payments have to be paid, jobs are scarce, and having worked for the WaPo, the New York Times or one of the alphabet networks looks good on a resume and helps ensure further employment. And editors have certain expectations of the Help if you want to keep working, as 'fact checker' Glenn Kessler at the WaPo found out.

Most of these people would probably list their profession as 'journalist' if asked. That conceit is laughable. They're merely campaign operatives working in a specialized field for the Democrat party.

And sometimes, late at night, I wonder if it bothers them, deep down. The gutting of a free, independent press in this fashion is not without consequences in a republic.